Bastard
The Bastard gun is a scratch-built submachine gun designed and built in the Armory for the express purpose of providing automatic firepower in the absence of military-grade rifles like the Kalash and Kalash 2012. It is the first automatic weapon Artyom will receive on his adventure, and is surprisingly ubiquitous and effective in spite of the gun having considerable shortcomings. Many players make a point of personal pride to beat the game with their only automatic weapon being the Bastard. In general, the other automatic weapons in the game are more effective and useful; The VSV, Kalash AK-74M, and Kalash 2012 all are more powerful per-shot and more accurate, generally making them more effective in a given situation, though the Bastard can do more damage than the VSV or Kalash with a full magazine up-close and personal (not counting use of MGBs, obviously). The name comes from a combination of its tendency to spray on automatic, propensity for overheating, and finicky reloading system; these shortcomings combine to give the weapon its name: It's a real bastard to use. Humorously, the name could quite conceivably have originally come from the fact that it's a hybridization of 2 or 3 different guns; the gun has a clear nod towards the Degtyarov PPD-34, but uses modern rifle rounds (5.45mm). It can use Military-Grade rounds. Tactics and Use In spite of widely being considered a low-grade piece of kit, the Bastard is far from a bad piece of weaponry; quite the contrary, it's remarkably effective when used correctly. Doing so takes a bit more finesse than other guns, though your skills will be well-spent honing your technique. Using the Bastard carries several advantages; it's the first automatic gun you get that can be Silenced, it's the first gun you get that can use Military-grade rounds, and with patience and practice, the gun can easily carry you through the entire game if you're skilled enough in its use. First and foremost is to identify the Bastard's strengths and weaknesses - its weaknesses are far more easy to discern, so we'll start there. It has very poor accuracy when firing on automatic, it overheats if fired on automatic too long, and its individual round damage is poor. Now for its strengths: it fires extremely fast, it's quite accurate when firing in single shots or short bursts, and it can crank out considerable damage up-close. It is particularly effective against human foes and Lurkers. The blend of high fire rate and low single-round damage is the primary reason virtually everyone prefers either flavor of Kalash or the VSV, but the Bastard can actually do more damage per second if used at close range - whereas the AK-74 does considerably more damage per shot and is much more accurate, in general making it seem much more lethal at longer ranges (which it is). Using the Bastard is thus more of an art than a science; firing single shots (which is possible) or bursts (also possible) is needed to maintain accuracy at a distance; using the sights will help steady your aim, but not refine it unless you stick to firing bursts. Longer ranges, again, are where the gun is admittedly at its weakest. Getting in close, so as to use the vicious rate of fire to its maximum effect, is needed to capitalize on the gun's strengths. Quantity over Quality is the rule here; if you're going to use the Bastard all game long, you're going to want to use the money you would save (and it's a lot) to invest in ammunition. The low individual-round damage finally catches up to the thing in the later stages of the game; it simply does not do enough damage fast enough (without spraying out hundreds of rounds at close-range, I mean) to justify using up-close against the nastier threats the game throws at you late-game (such as Librarians and Demons). It is worth noting that the addition of a Silencer does a lot to improve the Bastard. The Bastard is more accurate with this attachment, and the damage on the Bastard is not lowered sufficiently by the attachment for it to have a significant drop in effectiveness. It also adds the utility of a silent attack that attracts no attention, and somewhat cuts the gun's recoil, in general making the gun more efficient. One last thing to note: The Bastard gets very little damage improvements from the use of Military-grade rounds, even though it can use them. It is highly recommended you avoid using them with this weapon for that reason, and the fact that the Bastard can chew through a mountain of military-grade ammo if misused. Variants and obtaining This weapon comes in a few shapes and can be used by Artyom. All costs are in MGR (Military-Grade Rounds), these are the real costs, because the weapon cost depends on the value of the weapon you have in that slot. *Bastard: standard Bastard with standard steel sights. #Exhibition - Free from Armory. #Humans - Free. *Bastard with Silencer: has a silencer so that you can kill with a lower risk of detection. Has the side effect of cutting down the gun's recoil. #GunShops - 47 MGRs if you have a standard Bastard or 100 if you do not have a weapon (Exhibition only). #Dead City 1 - In the booth on the right, on the floor. #Dry Station - On the table on the right train track (there's a light, down wind from the kitchen). #Depot - After the cart ride, in the train in red ammo boxes among the dead nazis. #Child - among the many bodies, in section before the collaspable tunnel. (Look in the small area on the left, next to a body propped agianst wall) There is also a version with no buttstock wich can be found near dead Stalkers but it cannot be acquired or used by Artyom. Trivia * Unlike other weapons in the game, if you have a completely empty magazine in the bastard, Artyom will reload it faster. * The magazine feeds through the weapon as you fire, making it very easy to tell at a glance how much ammo remains. * People of the Metro call the Bastard a Sub-machine gun. This would be incorrect as the gun fires rifle cartridges which at the least makes it a carbine. Again however, it having 2 different features of 2 different firearm categories improves it's title of being a bastard gun. * When overheated, the gun jams and Artyom pulls out the spring on the back. (Steam comes out of the side when the weapon is hot.) It usually overheats after firing about two full magazines nonstop. * This is the only weapon which has innacuracy when aiming down the sights. When fired fully automatic, aiming down the sights hardly has any use. Bullets will just spray all over the entire screen. * The silencer-equipped variant is a considerable improvement and worth getting, whether bought or found (usually the latter is better). * The Bastard has a similiar design to the British WWII Sten-Gun and the Japanese WWII Type 100. It mainly draws, however, in terms of design, from the Degtyarov PPD-34 Submachinegun, an old, WWII-era Russian SMG that was one of the first guns to be used in Russia's doctrine of providing its rank-and-file with automatic weapons. * If left idle with the silenced version equipped, Artyom will eventually try to get the selector switch to choose "semi-automatic," only for the selector switch to break off in his hand. He will then look at it, perplexed and annoyed, before roughly shoving it back into place on the Bastard's reciever. However, if Artyom has an unsilenced version equipped, he will instead flip the Bastard to one side, and then will throw the rifle in the air a couple times before looking up, confused where its at, and will eventually fall into Artyom's hands after a couple seconds. * There are many WW2 weapons that bare a resemblance to the Bastard.These iclude the British Sten and Lanchester SMGs,the Japanese type 100,the Austrian Steyr MP34 SMG, the German Bergmann SMG,the Soviet PPD-34 and PPD-40 SMGs and its muzzle is similar to the American Thompson SMG.Many of its parts are also similar to the German MP40 SMG.However the fact that it fires 5.45 rifle cartriges makes it a carbine and not an SMG. * In real life, a gun like this would have problems with cycling bullets since the bullets would become dirty from being exposed to the elements. * Many reskinners and moders on websites have made a different version the Bastard would look like. Both have a clip with exposed bullets, but the alternate version looks like a M1 Grease Gun. * It is possible that there are other varients of the Bastard in the metro, but the one shown in game is possible the most common. Category:Weapons